The Fallen Leaves

Experience of the reception of _The Fallen Leaves_ by intelligent readers, who have followed the course of the periodical publication at home and abroad, has satisfied me that the design of the work speaks for itself, and that the scrupulous delicacy of treatment, in certain portions of the story, has been as justly appreciated as I could wish. Having nothing to explain, and (so far as my choice of subject is concerned) nothing to excuse, I leave my book, without any prefatory pleading for it, to make its appeal to the reading public on such merits as it may possess.
Wilkie Collins, GLOUCESTER PLACE, LONDON, July 1st, 1879

The novel follows the fortunes of four women, all in one way or another 'fallen leaves', who are linked by their relationships with the hero, Amelius Goldenheart, and also by secrets from the past. Their histories are looked at from two perspectives: that of the ruthless capitalist society of England in which they live, and that of the Christian Socialism of the hero who has been brought up in a Utopian community in America. Collins modelled his description on the Oneida communities of New England, in which sexual relationships were not restricted to marriage but had to be sanctioned by the elders. One of the leading themes of the novel is the difficulty of creating relationships between men and women which are neither hypocritical nor exploitative. Unfortunately the novel is not well constructed, and the importance of Collins's message is lost in a convoluted and extravagant plot. It relies heavily on coincidence and the writing is moralistic and melodramatic.
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